One Human Family, Caring for Creation: acting together to deliver a sustainable future
Caritas Internationalis response to ‘Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development’
In the final hour of intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda, Caritas
Internationalis urges member states not to renege on commitments to end poverty through the sustainable
development of all, and to remember the people who must be at the centre of all of our endeavours – those
living in poverty and marginalization.
For Caritas Internationalis, poverty eradication and the human dignity of all must be at the heart of the post2015 sustainable development. We walk side-by-side with some of the poorest and most marginalized people
around the world; in 2013 Caritas served an estimated 106 million people worldwide on programmes aimed
at ensuring food for people. We ask for governments negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals to
ensure that the principle of leave no one behind remains strong in the final outcome. In practice, this must
mean a pledge to reach the furthest behind first and commitment that no goal or target can be considered
met unless it is met for all social and economic groups.
We strongly recommend that the original version of the preamble, which reflects the breadth and depth of
the Agenda, is retained and not replaced by the Co-Facilitators’ proposed preamble.
The inclusion of the preamble is an essential part of the political document as it clearly frames the spirit and
the values on which the whole agenda is built and sets the level of ambition. It tells the world that we care
for our common home and we all have to work towards these shared goals. We support the call for the
‘eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions and ending hunger’, as well as the commitment to
tackle the threat posed by Climate Change. We welcome the link to the unfinished business of the
Millennium Development Goals and call for the commitment to action over the next fifteen years.
For more information, please contact Dadirai Chikwengo, Caritas Internationalis Post-2015 Advocacy Coordinator
[email protected]